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La Sierra University's School of Religion will feature "Nineveh:
The Glory of Iraq's Past," during the school's second annual
Archaeology Discovery Weekend set for Saturday and Sunday.

Archaeologists Diana Pickworth, from UC Berkeley, and Constance
Clark Gane, from Andrews University, have focused a good deal of
their work on Nineveh and will give accounts of their excavations,
bringing to life this 4,000-year-old city best known from the Old
Testament story of Jonah.

The weekend's lineup includes La Sierra and Andrews University
archaeologists providing up-to-date news reports on recent digs at
ongoing excavation sites in Jordan.

One lecture will focus on a 3,000-year-old Iron Age temple at
Ataruz that recently received media coverage by MSNBC and Fox
News.

The event will also offer visitors hands-on workshops on how to
make ancient cloth and tools, date pottery and reconstruct ancient
ceramic jar shards excavated in Jordan.

They may also attend a Middle Eastern banquet featuring a
presentation by Dr. Ziad Al-Sa'ad, director general of Jordan's
Department of Antiquities and visit with Pickworth and Gane, as
well as other archaeologists.

Pickworth, who earned her Ph.D. in Near Eastern art and
archaeology from UC Berkeley and who is serving as a visiting
scholar there, will present a talk titled "Nineveh: Excavation at
'Sennacherib's Gate to Halzi.' " Her fieldwork and excavations in
the Middle East include three excavation seasons as field
archaeologist and photographer at the Halzi Gate, Nineveh.

Pickworth has published widely on Nineveh and is writing a book
on the topic and co-authoring another book on Sennacherib's gate to
Halzi.

Netherlands company Brill will publish the two books. This year
she also presented a poster titled "Nineveh as the Ancient
Metropolis" at the 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of
the Ancient Near East held in London,.

Gane will give a lecture titled "Nineveh in the Rise and Fall of
Empires" for archaeology weekend.

Gane is an assistant professor of archaeology and the Old
Testament at Andrews University in Michigan and has recently
submitted her doctoral dissertation in Near Eastern studies to UC
Berkeley.

Her lengthy excavation experience includes serving as an
assistant supervisor at Nineveh as well as several seasons at Tall
Jalul in Jordan. She is the curator at the Siegfried H. Horn
Archaeological Museum at Andrews.

Nineveh, its ruins located in Iraq across the Tigris River from
the northern city of Mosul, at one time was bordered by a great
wall 7.5 miles long and in some places 148 feet wide. It was
embedded with 15 great gates, according to a published depiction.
One of its most famed rulers, Sennacherib, was responsible for
propelling Nineveh into greatness circa. 700 BC. The monarch built
new streets, squares and a famous palace. The city comprised 1,800
acres, and its residents retrieved water from 18 canals.

The Khawsar River flowed through the city to connect with the
Tigris on the other side, according to the account.

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